


Gay Riku alone on a Gummi Ship, what will he do

by Kaddi



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Dreams, Gummi Ship, M/M, POV: Riku, kairi also appears, she's here to establish her boundaries, this is such a riku-centric fic that i wont tag sora separately!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:55:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28292730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaddi/pseuds/Kaddi
Summary: Riku sighs and puts his head on the Gummi Ship's steering wheel. Only the engine's constant hum and the ticking of various displays keep him company out here in the Lanes Between. His friends are back at the Mysterious Tower or away on their own missions. Nothing serious, thankfully; Riku himself was sent out to check out a remnant Heartless nest as he's had to do about a dozen times before.
Relationships: Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 55





	Gay Riku alone on a Gummi Ship, what will he do

**Author's Note:**

> merry christmas and happy holidays! this fic isn't christmas-y, which is because i dug this out of my ooold drafts and polished it for the occasion!  
> enjoy! <3

Riku sighs and puts his head on the Gummi Ship's steering wheel. Only the engine's constant hum and the ticking of various displays keep him company out here in the Lanes Between. His friends are back at the Mysterious Tower or away on their own missions. Nothing serious, thankfully; Riku himself was sent out to check out a remnant Heartless nest as he's had to do about a dozen times before.

Still, being apart from his friends – or he should be honest with himself, being apart from  _ Sora _ – bothers him. There's an ever-present pit of worry in his stomach that won't quiet down. A smidge of doubt and fear, something he thought he had managed to nip in the bud, dance around in his mind. He really should know better, and he  _ does _ know better. His belief in Sora shines brighter than anything. But where there is light there is darkness, and so something in his heart won't accept quite yet that Sora won't just disappear again. After a year of running himself ragged, Riku doubts if he can truly be fine on his own.

Maybe that's why Yen Sid sent him on this mission alone. As much as he resented the retired Master for it, he does see the use in it. Actions have always weighed more than words for Riku.

At least they can stay in contact this time, now that they have phones. It's a far cry from being together, but it does help alleviate his anxiety. Plus, it gives him something to look forward to when he collapses in the ship's tiny sleeping compartment at the end of the day. Every silly selfie or carefully-taken-but-still-shaky photo Sora sends him makes his heart jump a bit as a smile spreads on his face. Sometimes, he thinks he feels Sora's heart join in the clumsy dance.

Sending messages is hard with his thumbs still unused to tapping away at a small screen. Sora is even worse, and probably the reason they even have an auto-correct function. That means they talk almost solely through pictures. Or rather, their chat history is full of Soras photos and Riku's "message read" check marks, which vastly outnumber the number of photos he sends. Sometimes, he considers answering – his heart knows exactly what it wants to say, but the sappiness makes the words get stuck in his head so that they never reach the screen. Riku has never considered himself a particularly sappy person, but this chat is making him seriously reconsider it. If any of his feelings were immortalized on the digital device... He doesn't want to think about it.

So he rarely writes back. Yet he has no trouble texting Kairi. She's a lot better at it than he is; As the only person out of the three of them who can use her phone without a problem, she never lets an opportunity pass to rub it under their noses.

His phone starts ringing right then, and a look at the caller ID reveals that it is Kairi, almost as if she had sensed that he was just thinking about her. He hits the brakes, letting his ship come to a stop – he doesn't need another "don't use your phone while driving" lecture.

"Hi, Kairi."

"You're hopeless," is what she greets him with, her voice coloured in fond exasperation.

"Why?" is all he asks, more confused than offended.

"You and Sora both," she continues, undeterred, "are hopeless. I don't know how much longer I can deal with this."

"Thanks, Kairi."

"You're welcome, friend dearest." She sighs, big and dramatic. "Sora has been sulking since you left."

Riku hums, remembering Sora's quite spectacular glare when Yen Sid had told him that Riku would be going on this mission alone.

"That's possible?"

"Yesterday he looked at his breakfast forlornly and whispered 'Riku used to eat this'," she giggles. Riku laughs along with her, glad she can't see the grin on his face.

Their laughter trails off soon after and he closes his eyes. For a moment, they sit there in companionable silence. Then Kairi sighs again, softer this time.

"He misses you," she says quietly.

"I won't be gone much longer. I miss you guys, too."

"Can you tell him that? I think hearing it from you will make him feel better."

"Sure," he lies through his teeth. Knowing she'd see through it, he sighs. "I'll try."

"That's all I ask!" She laughs, lifting the mood. "You'll do great. If words don't work send him a selfie or something. He loves seeing you. You stare at each other so much, I'm sure he can read the 'I miss you' in your eyes," she says, her tone light and teasing.

"No promises," he replies, making no move to deny her claim.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't make me call again! Riku, I love you lots, but I'm not gonna do the communicating for you."

His smile turns a bit sad and he scratches his cheek. She's right. They're all old enough that this game of telephone shouldn't be necessary. Kairi's got her own life that doesn't involve managing her two friends' relationship.

"You're right. I'll think of something."

"Good! I'll let you get back to work now. I miss you too, you know. See you soon!"

"See you soon, Kairi."

With that the call ends and Riku relaxes against his chair, having tensed at some point during the conversation. Right, work. He opens his eyes and sees a Heartless swarm heading right towards him. He curses and flings his phone, flooring the gas pedal. Just his luck.

He spends the better part of that day hunting down the straggling Heartless ships trailing him. It costs him a lot of time he could have spent making his way to the Tower, but that world is still a day's journey away – and Riku no longer deals with all-nighters as well as he had in his early teens. So if he wants to get any rest today, he for better or worse has to do it.

Once the radar  _ finally _ quiets, he finds a hiding place in the midst of some debris where he parks his ship for the night. The engine yowls goodbye as the ship powers down and Riku presses the balls of his hands to his eyes. His limbs ache from stiffness and his wrist painfully reminds him that he hasn't gotten around to doing his stretches yet. His little aches and pains will only get worse once he moves, he knows, so he counts to 20 in his head before he braves the world outside the cockpit.

His whole body protests as he searches for his phone that he had so carelessly thrown away earlier. Thankfully, it sustained no damage due to the protective casing meant to keep it safe during battle. The screen lights up, showing that there are a couple of messages waiting for him. He unlocks it.

His phone is still open on his chat history with Sora, where a new photo is waiting for him. A selfie of Sora and Kairi greets him, their cheeks squished together, both holding up a peace sign next to each other to form a "W" with matching smiles on their faces. Kairi must have taken it, judging by the crispness and lack of blurry fingers at the edge of the photo. It includes the caption "miss u xoxo" but he has no idea what the "xoxo" means. Kairi may have told him once, not that he can remember.

Well, the intent behind the message isn't exactly subtle. Riku groans and locks the device. He's been trying to think of how to go about this the whole day, mulling over the same few words so often that they became a scrambled mess. It should be so simple; Just type "I miss you, too" and hit send. Even a child could do it. And yet.

And yet Riku frowns at his phone, and he tries to frown at his friends when he unlocks it again. Being honest and telling his best friend that he misses him is akin to confessing that he breathes air. He doesn't risk anything with it. Still, his fingers freeze over the keyboard.

Being honest, being vulnerable, what's the difference? It all comes down to the same fear. He has so much proof to the contrary but he can't help but worry that Sora will not care. It's been an open wound in his heart for so long that is only now slowly beginning to heal. He wonders what will happen when it closes, if it will ever close completely.

His breath stutters and there's the tell-tale sting of budding tears in his eyes. Fine. If his brain decides to overreact, he's done for tonight. Exhaustion makes it hard to keep it at bay. He turns off his phone and trudges to the sleeping compartment.

Tomorrow is another day.

The next time he opens his eyes, he is no longer on his ship. A blue sky littered with stars expands above him, framed by specks of red and pink flowers. Pleasantly cool earth braces his back as he floats in the sea of flowers. A sweet, floral scent intertwines with the breeze gracing his cheek.

With great effort he turns and sits up on his knees, looking around in a daze. The sudden, soft sound of splashing water breaks him out of it. To his right, a grass path leads down a slope to a shore. Now that he has realized that the ocean is there, a trace of brine joins the smell cacophony. All of it fades in the background, however, when he sees what is causing the splashing – or rather, who.

"Sora!" slips past his lips.

Sora turns at the sound of his name, knee-deep in the water. His confused face immediately breaks into a huge smile when he spots Riku and the sun weaves itself into the sky.

"Riku!" he shouts.

Riku takes a couple careful steps towards him, a bit wobbly on his feet, but Sora has no such trouble. He fights through the water and runs towards Riku. In a matter of seconds, two arms wrap firmly around Riku's waist and the force with which Sora throws himself at his best friend knocks both of them over. They sprawl on the ground but Sora is a solid, warm weight in his arms so Riku doesn't care about the pain struggling for his attention. He buries his face in Sora's shoulder and squeezes him.

"Hey, I still need that air!" Sora laughs.

Riku flushes and sheepishly loosens his hold. When they sit up, Sora grabs his hands, lightly swaying them between them.

"Sorry about that," Riku says.

Sora shakes his head, the big grin on his face waving away Riku's apology. He starts talking about something, absentmindedly playing with Riku's hands. But the dream makes it difficult for Riku to pay attention to it. Still, he can't look away from his best friend. There aren't as many freckles on his face as there used to be, thanks to the amount of time he's been spending at the Tower recently. He traces the patterns they paint on Sora's face with his eyes, connecting them in little constellations.

He doesn't need a lot more than this to be happy, he thinks.

"Are you even listening to me?" Sora asks, stabbing a bony finger into Riku's thigh. His lips are tugged down into a playful pout. "I'll just have to tell you all of this again when you're home."

Riku pinches his cheek, a smirk on his face. "Alright, I'm sorry. You can tell me everything in even more detail when I see you tomorrow."

"You're home tomorrow!?"

"That's the plan, yeah."

Sora cheers, "I can't wait to see you again."

Because this is a dream, Riku lets himself tug Sora into another hug. "I can't wait, either."

He hides his face in Sora's hair and suddenly becomes quite drowsy. His eyes slip shut against his will. Around him, the dream slowly fades as he falls back into a dreamless sleep.

In the morning, Riku wakes to a grey ceiling and the stale air of his ship. Sora's honey-sweet touch lingers in the warmth of his heart. His mind stays in the dream's memory for a while longer as he rolls out of bed and digs his phone out from under his blanket.

When he turns it on, there are no new messages waiting for him, leaving him to deal with yesterday's mess. Though it was just a dream, seeing Sora soothed something within him and lifted his spirits enough that he felt he could accomplish something. What, exactly, he isn't quite sure yet. The digital keyboard glows lazily as he purses his lips.

Kairi suggested that he could send a photo. Riku doesn't like taking photos of himself, but since they sent him one... it's only right that he sends one back, right? He can push through this.

It takes a bit of fumbling but he opens up the camera app and holds out his phone in front of him. His sleepy, dreamy-eyed self looks back at him. His hair is mussed up even though he usually barely moves in his sleep. He woke up with a smile today, he realizes belatedly as he spots it on his screen. It threatens to slip off his face as he traces it in disbelief. But the thought of getting  _ home _ today helps him to keep it there.

A minute later he has snapped a photo and struggles with figuring out how to send it when at last it pops up in the chat, right under the other one, nervous anticipation pools in his stomach rather than anxiety. He scrolls up and saves the picture of his two best friends before he leaves the sleeping compartment.

He's got a lot of ground to cover if he wants to make it home today.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! c:  
> [(my twitter!)](https://twitter.com/Lanzelilot)


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